Knowledge mapping techniques within the construction industry: An exploratory study

Suresh, S; Egbu, CO

Abstract

The last 15 years has seen the transitioning of the industrial economy to a knowledge economy.
Knowledge is now considered as the new value proposition of the post-industrial economy,
which is embedded in staff and workers in the organization; and can and should be considered a
key resource for competitiveness and performance. Organisations intending to effectively
exploit their knowledge assets might need to effectively identify where their knowledge resides.
This is the underlying principle of “knowledge mapping”. Knowledge mapping techniques aim
to track the acquisition and loss of information and knowledge. It explores personal and group
competencies and illustrates how knowledge flows throughout an organisation or ‘network’.
This paper reports some of the findings from an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council (EPSRC), UK, funded project entitled “Knowledge mapping and bringing about change
for the sustainable urban environment”. This research project investigated the different types of
knowledge mapping techniques that are used to bring about change from a sustainable urban
environment (SUE) perspective.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen (14) construction industry actors
(architects, developers, and main contractors) and four (4) developers of knowledge mapping
software tools to identify current and ‘successful’ knowledge mapping tools. The semistructured
interviews investigated the mechanisms by which the construction industry actors
learn (both from their experiences and from external sources of knowledge), capture knowledge
and know-how and diffuse it across organisations. The interviews with software developers
investigated the types of knowledge mapping tools on the market, focusing on their dynamism
and potential effects for the users. Of particular interest were the capture and diffusion of
knowledge and know-how related to sustainability, which was defined broadly in terms of the
triple bottom line (Economic, Social and Environmental). The paper concludes that the
construction industry stakeholders interviewed accept that knowledge mapping is important and
have initiated or improved mechanisms (tools/techniques) to capture and diffuse information,
particularly with respect to sustainability. However, generally speaking, they have not adopted
off-the peg knowledge mapping software solutions. The market solutions are not seen to be cost
effective, do not offer the firms added value and organisations prefer instead to invest in inhouse
development of intranets and other IT enabled tools. They also rely on techniques long
established in the firm (e.g. meetings, briefing notes, seminars, coaching schemes, and
newsletters). This study revealed that the industry actively uses different combinations of nine
out of the seventeen knowledge mapping tools identified.

Citation

Suresh, S., & Egbu, C. Knowledge mapping techniques within the construction industry: An exploratory study. Presented at CIB W102-Information and knowledge management in Buildings, Finland

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: CIB W102-Information and knowledge management in Buildings
• Conference Location: Finland
• End Date: Jun 4, 2008
• Publication Date: Jun 3, 2008
• Deposit Date: Mar 10, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Keywords: Knowledge, knowledge management, knowledge mapping, sustainable urban; environment
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference